Drones might be a suitable solution to send beer out onto a
frozen lake, but crafty brewers that were delivering to ice fishermen in
Minnesota have been grounded.

A company called Lakemaid Beer was flying beer out to fishing shacks -- under the Federal
Aviation Administration’s (FAA) radar -- until regulators took
notice of its YouTube advertisements.

The FAA doesn’t permit commercial drone operations, so
Lakemaid was grounded. Its managing partner Jack Suppie told Al Jazeera America
that it didn’t believe that the FAA would be upset by its low altitude drone
flights – especially considering it was all happening over open water away from
any residential areas.

Even that limited use case isn’t legal under current FAA
regulations. Other potential drone service scenarios include shipping products from retailers
such as Amazon,
parcel
delivery, and pizza
deliveries. Even UPS is examining drone possibilities.

The U.S. government is reconsidering its ban
as it evaluates new rules. The U.S. Congress passed
a law requiring this to be done by “no later than September 30, 2015.”
Commercial drones are currently operating on test
sites for this purpose.